I don’t remember who mentioned the intentional silencing of the the men’s voice in the Babe music video. I was trying to put together a video mashup of Babe and I’m Not The Only One using Photos. I miss Windows 7 and Windows Movie Maker so much. Photos is not comparable, and I will never understand Microsoft for shunning Windows 7. That’s a different argument though, so back to the videos...
The Opening Conversation in INTOO:
Dianna (wife): I made you breakfast by the way.
Husband: Ok, I’m In uh...I’m in uh bit of a rush but
Dianna (wife) : Okay, [inaudible but I think she says oh yeah] that’s fine. Give me a kiss. *Kiss*
The Opening Conversation In Babe:
Wife: By my love. *Kiss* Have a good day.
Husband: *Moves lips but voice is purposely silenced*
The opening scene of the INTOO video is the backdrop of a married couple’s house. Nice ambiguity that we don’t see the couple until they kiss. Though we hear their voices and can make an assumption that their a heterosexual couple before the kiss occurs. It’s important to note that Dianna (the wife) is the first voice we hear. So we have a married woman in a committed relationship confirmed first in the opening conversation.
The opening scene of the Babe music video is not as important, but the dialogue is. Without seeing the video, you could not make an initial assumption about who the married couple is. All we hear is the wife’s voice which takes us back to the ambiguity that Taylor uses to connect the videos. So we have another married woman in a committed relationship confirmed first in the opening conversation. But Taylor took it a step further by choosing to silence the spouse in the conversation, so as I mentioned earlier you can’t make an assumption. Why would they decide to input an opening conversation only to make it abnormal by silencing the husband unless they wanted to highlight the conversation.
The attention drawn to a one-sided conversation has to be mean more than just ambiguity. What if the man silence is used to signify that the man’s voice in the INTOO should be silenced as well. This would create a one-sided conversation unless the two conversations were merged into one:
Merged Opening Conversations:
*Following two lines said at the same time*
Dianna (wife): I made you breakfast by the way.
Wife: Bye my love.
Dianna (wife): Okay, [inaudible but I think she says oh yeah] that’s fine. Give me a kiss.
*Kiss*
Wife: Have a good day.
The kiss acts as the conjoiner of the two videos. The kiss also signifies were the Babe music video would be inserted into the INTOO music video. So the Babe video becomes about two married woman in a relationship dealing with infidelity. Taylor wrote Babe. Taylor made the video treatment of Babe parallel, INTOO, a music video Dianna stars in. Dianna the same woman Taylor was in a relationship with. This is why the silence of the man is important because it tells us where to link in the Babe music video. Connection to Dianna and the dubbing in the Babe Music video so she can narrate their story [insert Swiftgon Timeline]. The parallels throughout the rest of the video acts as a reminder to the connection of INTOO/Dianna.
But yet the similarities between the two videos have not been highlighted by fans as much as one would think. Doesn’t anyone else find it strange that fans of Sam, the media, and most of Taylor’s fans have ignored the similarity/parallels between the Two videos. Regardless of the music video release date of INTOO, the silence is strange. Sugarland even highlighted Taylor’s involvement...
